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Tag: Am I Native American?

I don’t know how anyone can be a genealogist and not use a timeline. I find them the perfect way to organize the ancestors. I categorize them by surname and arrange them by dates. Birth, marriage, death and other important highlights.

When building a timeline for Native American ancestry, there are a myriad of historical dates that might shed light on where your ancestors went. We can keep a Native American history book by our side but we can’t include every war or relocation on our timeline. But watch for big events. Here are two:

1827 – A decision was made by the U.S. Federal Government to spend the next two years removing all Indians from Illinois.

1829 – President Andrew Jackson was in power. In 1830 he instituted the “Removal Act,” a ruling that called for all eastern Indians to be relocated to an Indian territory west of the Mississippi River. The sad history of the “Trail of Tears,” falls under this date.

It’s a good idea to study a map and get the feel for your research. Your ancestors from the east may have become westerners with this cruel act perpetrated by Andrew Jackson.

When you take a DNA test and your results lump your Native American ancestry with Asia, it’s confusing. Are they broadly stating their findings? Not necessarily. Native Americans descend from Asians who came her many, many, many years ago. Some scholars believe the evidence points to well over 30,000 years ago. Some may dispute that it wasn’t that long ago, but you will find archaeologists with substantial evidence that this is true. Including DNA evidence (genetic mutations found in Siberian and Mongolian peoples).

If your DNA test has you listed as Native American/Southeast Asian, you’ll know that the scientific evidence concludes that your ancient ancestors were Asian. Look at a globe. The only thing that separates North America from Southeast Asia is a big body of water, the Pacific Ocean.

My niece has a new baby. She is absolutely floored because friends are pointing out that her baby “looks Chinese.” I don’t know the baby’s father’s ancestry, but my mother’s almond eyes were one of the most beautiful aspects of her face. Those Asian eyes… watch for it… embrace it and don’t forget to teach your children about their origins.

Even though Americans were fascinated with the legend of Geronimo, his rise to fame is a sad story. That he was part of Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade makes no difference. He was still a prisoner and died four years later, never having gained his freedom or the right to return home, which for the Apaches in the 1800s, was the Southwest, especially Arizona and New Mexico. (Originally the Apaches were from Western Canada. Using “originally” lightly.)

While he was in his fifties, Geronimo was hearty, fearless and still escaping from the army. Escaping at least three times. After the last time he was captured (he never gained his freedom), while still in captivity, he appeared in a Wild West show. Doesn’t that sound degrading?

The Apaches made a name for themselves among the white settlers, savages. Some of us have that savage blood running through our veins and we would love to uncover its origins.

Now that DNA testing companies have succeeded in getting millions of us to swab our cheeks, do we still need to “talk” and “research” about our ancestry? Of course we do. In fact, after having taken DNA tests through both 23andMe and Ancestry.com, I appreciate even more, the research I’ve done through the years. Research and family gossip are valuable, maybe the most valuable information that we have. Don’t discredit oral history that speaks of your Native American ancestry, just because your DNA test shows nothing. As the science progresses and more people share their DNA with the public, who and what classifies as a Native American will change. And don’t think that less than one or two percent of an “ethnicity” is insignificant. It’s not. If your grandmother told you that you have Native American ancestry, don’t give up the faith. DNA science needs more time to evolve. In the meantime, keep asking questions and keep digging.

Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy IV – Native Americans Hidden in Our Family Trees. Available here:

Chief Red Cloud of the Sioux Indian tribe is remembered by these words:

“The White Man made us many promises, more than I can remember. But they only kept one. They promised to take our land, and they took it.”

Humans always strike out for new lands, encroaching on those who were there before them. In what the Europeans called, Manifest Destiny, they swept across the continent and settled from the east coast to the west. In the earliest days of contact, as those of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Indians were friendly but as the new settlers began staking claims on Indian lands, threatening their way of life and their survival, wars ensued. It’s a complex situation, those of us who are descendants of European settlers and have some Native American ancestry. Because of past prejudices toward being “Indian,” our Native ancestors are hidden in our family trees.

Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy IV – Native Americans Hidden in Our Family Trees. Available here:

Americans know that traditional Indian lands were taken to accommodate newly arriving European’s hunger for land. The Indians, out-numbered and out-gunned, were pushed by the U.S. government from place to place. Everyone has heard of the “Trail of Tears,” but those who study American Indian history know… there were many trails of tears.

Fast forward a couple hundred years. Look around you. If you look deeply enough you’ll see remnants of the lost tribes in the faces of many American people. Over the years, the American government has made reparations to Native People. Some would say a little… too late. Others line up to receive it. Why not? If it hadn’t been taken from their families in the first place, today they would have more resources and assets. But who should line up to take those reparations in the form of health care and college tuition supplements, be they ever so meager? What a loaded question. Wow. You can find these discussions on Native genealogical message boards and website forums across the Internet. Before you worry about whether you deserve any compensation for your rightful inheritance, it’s best to see if you can prove your American Indian ancestry. It’s not as easy as you think.

Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy IV – Native Americans Hidden in Our Family Trees. Available here:

If you’ve never been on a Native American forum to look for your ancestors, you may not realize that many of America’s most prominent surnames include American Indians. The dark hair and dark eyes that run through your family may not be Irish genetics but instead Native American. It was quite common for American Indians to escape persecution and removal from their lands by posing as Black Irish or Black Dutch. As the years progressed, the family dropped the Black and they were just Irish or Dutch.

Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy IV – Native Americans Hidden in Our Family Trees. Available here: